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Matteo Castelli

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Everything posted by Matteo Castelli

  1. Thanks David and Brian, tomorrow morining I go to scout a location and after I'll tell you my impressions posting some photos. Best, M.
  2. Hi Leonardo, thank you so much for your precious suggestions. I'll take care of them. I know ALF and I forgot to specify that my idea was to use balloon on stands, not flying, so much easier to manage and move. A couple of goboes should be ok to cut some spills. I still don't know which generator we'll use, it depends on which lights we rent and this depends about the locations scouting, the director's vision, the script, so all things you perfectly know. Sicuramente, caro Leonardo, ti scriverò in privato, magari ci sentiamo per telefono, perchè mi piacerebbe confrontarmi con te! ciao e grazie! M.
  3. Hi David, we'll see the mountains in long shots, probably something from a drone as well, during day time. day for night is an option we are considering, but for only specific shots.
  4. You're right great David. As I said, the story is set during WWII. The movie want to tell the stories of many people that took an old path along mountains in middle Italy to escape Nazis and Fascisiti. Their stories are seen by the eyes of a young boy and his father that work with wood along the path and they see all these people stream in front of them. Those people, mostly women, children and old people were forced to take the path at night, in complete darkness, to not be viewed by soldiers. They didn't use any flashlight, fire and they can't even smoke a cigarette because that weak light could get them seen. The director adapted the story and set some scenes during day or in a village, but my main issue is working well and fast in the wood due to our tight schedule, only 3 weeks!! Of course my goal is to get emotional images, pictorial frames that immediately convey the mood of the story. So strong contrast, back lights, hard rays of light where people pass through as this light is the moon passing through the trees. Bounced light off of some stone or river, silhouetted row of people walking in the wood. My references are "The Wolfman", as David pointed in the other post, but also "Defiance" with Daniel Craig, "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise (great cinematography), "Enemy at the gates", "Stargate" and many others. I hope to be more clear now. Thank you so much! M.
  5. Hi all, I'm writing to you from Florence, Italy. I'm going to shoot a feature film in few months. The movie speaks about a small family during WWII. The story is set in the Tuscan mountains, Alpi, and most of the story take place at night. The budget is small but we absolutely want to get the best out of our images. I'm trying to figure out which lights are the best to be "fast and good" in lighting scenes in the forest at night. My crew won't be big, I think only 2 grips and 2 electricians. I was thinking to something like this: http://lightingballoons.com/products/53/umbrella-ball/ or http://skylightballoon.com/index.php/products/skyball in the place of butterflies with big source behind or bounced off of them. Some Kino Flo Wall-o-lite, and some 2.5k hmi and 1.2k hmi with white diffusion frames are small enough to be fast and to keep a good quality of light for close ups and medium shots. I'm not sure which camera I'll use, I think a Blackmagic Camera, so nothing too much sensitive. I'll try to keep the frame not too wide so I'm not forced to illuminate areas that are too large. There will be some scene with a small crowd of people moving along the forest and those seems to be the most demanding shots in terms of lighting. That's it. I'm interested in knowing what are your thoughts and which way you would take being in my shoes. Thank you very much. Matteo
  6. The hardness or softness depends on how big and diffuse is the source and far is from the subject.. example: sun is a point source set very far, supposed infinite, so its beam is parallel everywhere it casts (I have the same exposure here and 10km. away on a sunny day) a softbox close to the subject generates very soft shadow edges with almost no shadows on the wall near there.. I'm not perfect in english,sorry, but check this websit out and you'll understand immediately: http://www.lowel.com/edu/foundations_softlight.html ciao, Matteo
  7. thank you guys! it's right what I was looking for! grazie, ciao M.
  8. ciao! Some time ago I saw some pictures behind the scene of a production where the camera operator was in top of a car and he operated a special camera that went inside the car from the roof, free to move 360° all around the vehicle.. I can't remember which was that production!! a movie? a music video? can you help me? thank you all.. ciao, Matteo
  9. sorry! I mean book shop! a good book shop where I can evaluate the book before buying it.. thank you!
  10. Hello everybody, I'm going to spend some days of vacation in NYC and I'd like to find a library where find the best book about lighting and cinematography.. I already know some good title, but i'd like to check it before buy.. can anyone suggest me any good place to go? thank you very much, or as we say here in Italy CIAO!
  11. Clive, I have the same problem too! Please help me! thank you so much! matteo@mela-online.it Matteo C.
  12. Thank you friends for your precious answers! I've learn a lot from you and I'll take care of your replies.. Walter you are so perfect in all your expositions! I'll keep you informed the way our tests with Red will go.. Thanks againg and happy new year ciao, Matteo
  13. Thank you for your answers.. expecially you, David. I work often with professional video cameras so I must to balance the white almost always, and it's nice. I like to play with color temperature, when I have a mixed temperatures I balance several times in different spots and later I choose the one temperature I like most, even without monitor, but only on my experience. Once I read in a too fast way something about balancing the white on a grey card, but unfortunately I don't remember exactly what that article said. But I tried to balance on a grey card and it work perfectly, even without overexposing. Usually some collegues of mine let the automatic iris working while balancing on a white paper, so the camera goes towards the "middle", the grey! My question comes from this point: we are going to make some tests with our new Red One during this day. We want to find the better and reliable monitor to let me, or other DPs, control the images. One of my friends, a great technician here in Italy, wants to check if the white that come from the monito match with the Red one, so we have color temperature meter to have a valide reference, but I'd like to go on top of the problem and be sure about balancing the white in the better way possible.
  14. ciao Linda, finalmente qualche italiano sul forum! Sono interessato alla posto di operatore di ripresa. Attualmente sono in Italia, ma per me sarebbe un ottimo investimento il viaggio fino in California se ciò mi può aprire delle opportunità di lavorare ad un lungometraggio negli Stati Uniti, peraltro il secondo della mia carriera. Ti prego di visitare il mio sito (www.matteocastelli.mela-online.it) e valutare molto seriamente la mia candidatura. Grazie e a presto, Matteo
  15. Ciao, I'd like to know your opinion about the difference between balancing the white using a white paper, or white card, or a "kodak" grey card. Actually i can't figure out a clear reason for choosing a grey card in place of a white one. More, a friend of mine told me that for digital supports the right grey is 12%, instead of 18% for film support, is it right? Thanks, Ciao.
  16. Hi everybody, I'm going to shoot a short film in late december.. The script is almost easy, first there is a day/interior: a mom is looking at her child playing and after he disappear.. second (day/int.), there is a pretty long dialogue between the mom and a man in a sitting room.. at the end of it she walks out the house and he starts to look at some papers and pictures into a box, and the last scene take place at a bus stop, night, where we see the mom so desperate for son's missing.. Well, I'm thinking about make some light changes along the story.. first I'd start with a warm mood and, as soon as we get to the end of the story, and we understand how much the mom is worry about her son's missing, I'd go towards coolest tones.. what do you suggest to reach this goal? probably I'll shoot with a Panasonic 200 and I won't have a huge amount of lights, maybe some 1k fresnel and some other stuffs.. thank you in advance for every tips..
  17. Hi everybody, first of all sorry for my english.. on next monday I'm going to shoot a commercial into the "white void". I already searched the posts over this forum, and I found a lot of useful tips, but I need some more advices. We are going to shoot inside a "sphere" white room (I don't know the name in english, sorry), like a continuous cyclorama, in a studio. It's only one shoot, no cuts! There's a bunch of people looking at a painting, maybe it'll be suspended from the ceiling or fixed to the wall, I still don't know.. I have a dolly movement that start at the end of the room, so a pretty wide shot, and slowly we go toward the painting. As I pass the people, each of them turn toward the camera and go behind me until the last one. This person is giving me his back and is the closer to the painting. They will all be dressed in a grey suit and they'll have a white mask, so they are all the same person. The idea is to have a white void, so no shadows.. My question is: how can I light this room? I assume in the first part of the shoot, the wider one, I'll see the floor, almost 3 sides of the room and maybe the ceiling too! Where I can put the light and at the same time have the white blow out to have the void? thank you! Matteo
  18. Hi Mevlan, I'm from Italy, so it could be easy for me get Albania.. Please check my website and call me for any further information. all the best, Matteo
  19. Hi guys, I received an offer as "director of lighting". I'm italian mother language and I'd likne to know the real meaning of it, which are the duties of DoL actually? Do I have to consider this role as DP or Gaffer? I'm a DP/camera operator, but I've never look after at gaffer's competence "behind the scene". I actually don't know how a generator works indeed. I have some knowledge, I'd don't want to find myself inappropriate in this role. If this is a calling for gaffer could you give some good advice to make a good impression on set? thank you very much!
  20. I don't think the most important issues is "what asa is my camera".. The lightmeter is useful to control the light ratios all over the scene and you can do it with the footcandles readings of your lightmeter.. after that you can set the right aperture direclty thru the lens/viewfinder, as I suppose you've always done since now.. what do you think about it?
  21. Hi everybody, I did my first showreel, it took me a lot of time because I was never actually satisfied. Please take a look and be very hard with in your post.. thanks a lot, Matteo www.matteocastelli.mela-online.it PS: I did the website by myself, if anybody needs a help, just call me! ;)
  22. obviously you mean the reflection reading of the surface.. so I should start from it and then I have to balance the other light with my bright surface to achieve my purposes, right?
  23. Hi everybody, I wonder how to measure a bright surface, such as a film screen, or something similar.. Something that doesn't receive the light, but where the light comes from.. thank all folks! B)
  24. Hi, my name is Matteo and I'm from Italy.. I?m interested in position of DP for your production. With my background as lighting cameraman, I am confident that I would make a very successful and creative job. You can review my resume and have more info about me on www.matteocastelli.mela-online.it I have over fifteen years experience in both television and film. My practise as a Lighting Cameraman is on several documentaries, TV programs and reports, concerts, sports, action, news, and some commercials, short films and corporate films. In movie industry I act as camera assistant/focus puller on 35mm e S16mm short and length films. My career has included every phase of production. I look forward to speaking with you about this opportunity. Thank you for your time and consideration. Matteo ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ Matteo Castelli +39 333 6494031 www.matteocastelli.mela-online.it
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